the earliest musical influence on him came from the Peking Opera, folk songs and the folk story tales in northern China. Yang Yong received a Ph.D. in composition from Brandeis University and is a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music[birth date supplied by Casey Mongoven]

severely handicapped from birth, Yano was quadriplegic and endured many difficulties related to his condition. In spite of his physical limitations, Marco finished his university studies with a major in conducting and composition from the State University of São Paulo (UNESP)

composer now based in the United States, he won an Oscar for his acclaimed score for the adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's Booker Prize-winning novel The English Patient in 1996. His scores since then include City of Angels and Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley

little-known in Europe, Yashiro was a French-trained perfectionist, a pupil of Boulanger and Messiaen, who completed only a handful of concert works. The Symphony (1958) and Piano Concerto (1967) show high craftsmanship, fastidious instrumental colouring, and the extraordinary freedom with which Yashiro absorbed elements of Messiaen's writing

composer and accordionists who has been living in Hungary since 1995. He has participated in a great number of theatrical and film productions both as a performer (Bertolt Brecht: Jungle of the Cities, Andor Lukáts: Portugal, Joye Sergent: Crime and Punishment) and as a composer (Ferenc Molnár: Liliom, András Szoke: Three, György Farkas: Blood Line, András Fésos: Street Heart Beat)

English singer and publisher. He is most famous for publishing the Musica transalpina (1588), a collection of Italian madrigals with their words translated into English. This proved to be explosively popular, beginning (or fueling) a vogue for madrigal composing and singing in England which lasted into the first two decades of the 17th century. Indeed, William Heather, founder of the music chair at Oxford University, included the book in his portrait, painted c.1627, confirming the longevity of Musica transalpina's influence and popularity

American guitarist and composer, member of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

York, Francis Lodowick

1861

1955

American organist and teacher who lived and worked in Detroit from about 1875. He was the organist of Christ Church in Detroit from 1896. He taught piano, organ and compostion at the Detroit Conservatory of Music and at the Ypsilanti State Normal College. He published A Practical Introduction To Composition, Harmony Simplified in 1926, but his only published organ composition was a Spring Song (Canon) which appeared in 1907

in the latter years of the Edo Period, a Nagoya musician, Yoshizawa Kengyo created another song style with direct ties to the older kumiuta style. Yoshizawa used waka poetry taken from ancient anthologies as song texts and created a new tuning based on both in and yo scales. This tuning was called kokinjoshi, the name borrowed from the ancient Japanese poetry anthology Kokin Waka Shu

composer and teacher based in England. His main interest in composition continues to be in acousmatic music, particularly forms based on the distinction between recognisable natural sound sources and computer-based studio transformations

if Jimmy Smith was the Charlie Parker of the organ, Larry Young was its John Coltrane. Larry Young was a fabulous Hammond organist who had a career with Blue Note, but who really came into his own when he moved into the world of 'fusion' with the Tony Williams Lifetime, on John McLaughlin's classic Devotion album and on Santana and McLaughlin's Love, Devotion and Surrender

American jazz musician, composer and tenor saxophonist. Singer Billie Holiday called Lester Young the president of tenor saxophonists, and the nickname Prez (or Pres) stuck. In his solos of the 1930s he reinvented the art of playing the saxophone and opened new doors to improvisation. He was a developer of the jazz genre, bebop

music scholar, editor, organist, composer and teacher; Director of Music, Stranmillis Teacher Training College, Belfast 1934-37; Musical Adviser, Stoke-on Trent Local Education Authority 1937-44; Director of Music, Wolverhampton College of Technology 1944-66; Honorary Fellow, Selwyn College, Cambridge 1998-2004. Throughout his career, Young was prolific as a composer, though the demands on his time often relegated it to a secondary activity. Essentially a miniaturist, choral motets, solo songs and chamber music dominate his early period. These include Virgin's Slumber Song (1932) and a fine setting of Robert Louis Stevenson's cycle of poems, From A Child's Garden which dates from 1941. Works on a larger canvas range from the 1931 Passacaglia for Violin and Piano through to the Fugal Concerto in G Minor for Two Pianos and String Orchestra some 20 years later. Particularly fine is an Elegy For String Orchestra commissioned for the 1960 Zwickau Festival in Germany

held a position in the court of Archduke of Austria in Innsbruck (1653); flute player and then violinist in the band of Charles II; anticipated the style of Henry Purcell; wrote sonatas for 2 to 4 violins, viola da gamba and keyboard (there appear to have been at least two William Youngs, both England and both string players)

virtuoso violinist pupil of Wieniawski and Vieuxtemps; orchestral conductor; composer of 6 concertos for violin and an opera in Walloon (a Belgian dialect of French)

Ysaÿe, Théophile

1865Verviers, Belgium

1918Nice, France

pianist, brother of the above; composed orchestral music

Yu-Chung, Tseng

1960Taiwan

completed his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of North Texas (1998) in USA. His music, written for both acoustic and electronic media, has been recognized with awards from the R.O.C National Culture Planning Council, University of North Texas, and Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (Honourable Mention Award 1998, 1999). His works have also received many performances at festivals and conferences from organizations including Korean EA Music Society (SICMF 2002, 2003), Taiwanese Computer Music Association (TCMA 99, 2000), International Computer Music Association (ICMC 98, 99, 2001, 2003), Society for Electroacoustic Music in United States (Net Concert 1997, SEAMUS 1998), Texas Computer Musician's Network (TCMN 96, 97, 98). He is a member of ICMA, and a funding member of TCMA. Currently, he is a full-time assistant professor of music at National Taipei Teachers College in Taiwan

Yuasa made the acquaintance of Toru Takemitsu (composer), Kuniharu Akiyama (musicologist) and others while a pre-medical student at Keio University in Tokyo. He joined them in forming the `Jikken-kobo' (Experimental Workshop) in 1952, and turned to devote himself to music. Since then, Yuasa has been actively engaged in a wide range of musical composition, including orchestral, choral and chamber music, music for theatre, and intermedia, electronic and computer music

studied architecture at the University of Sao Paulo. In 1985 he had had composition lessons with the Brazilian composer Damiano Cozzella at the University of Sao Paulo University, but is mostly self-taught. After visiting Amsterdam for the first time in 1986 he went on to study at the Nederlandse Film & Televisie Academie

one of the most popular performers in the Fergana- Tashkent style (four maqams). This school differs from the Bukharan style, it is strongly linked to the Uzbek language (as opposed to Tajik) and is sometimes referred to as 'free maqam'. For such a celebrity, Munadjat has taken an unconventional route to success. She was born in a small village near Andijan, and worked the feilds with the rest of her family. The story goes that she applied to the Higher Conservatoire of Music, vocal arts department, not realising that they trained opera singers. She was turned down for singing 'out of tune' but was heard from outside the door of the audition room by one of Uzbekistan's most famous composers, Shavkat Mirzaev

graduating from Kiev Music College in 1981 (piano) and from Kiev State P. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1990 (composition), she completed her postgraduate studies at the Kiev State P. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1998 (class of composition of professor E. Stankovich (1998)

graduating from Moscow State Conservatory as a composer in 1987, she is a member of the Composers' Union of Russia (Moscow organization) and the Filmmakers' Union of Russia, member of the Association of Contemporary Music (ACM) and has been a member of the Theremin Centre since 1994